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April 2, 2017

WELCOME!
WE'RE GLAD YOU'RE HERE

We are a group of believers who simply try to follow the Bible as a guide for all we do. Everything done in our worship service is something for which we have a Bible basis. You are welcome to participate as much or as little as you wish. We will sing hymns together and we will observe the Lord's Supper or Communion together. We will also have an opportunity to give to the work of God in this area. This collection is for the members here, and if you are visiting you should not feel and pressure to give. Our lesson time will be divided into two groups. The young children will go to our classroom area in the basement where they will be taught the Bible at a level they can understand. The adults will stay in the auditorium for a lesson at an adult level. We do try to serve the community, and if you have some needs that we can help you with, mention it to one of the members. Thank you for worshipping with us.

FAMILY NEWS

POTLUCK TODAY: It is the first Sunday of the month, so we are having our monthly potluck today. We have brought lots of food, so plan to stay and eat with us and enjoy fellowship together.

TIMBERS TODAY: At 2:30 we will be conducting a worship service at Timbers Nursing Home. We need singers and greeters. We always have about 30 people who sing, pray, and have a short lesson together. Help us out by being there.

FOOD PANTRY TODAY: We can always use more people getting involved with people who come today for food items to get them through the week. See Patty Gibson for instructions if you can help us out.

HIGHWAY CLEANUP: We clean up the highway in front of our building and down to the city limits as a service to the community. This year the first clean up day is Saturday April 15 at
10:00 AM, so mark that on your calendar and plan to be here to help.


TODAY'S LESSON

THREE NEW TESTAMENT FOOLS

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John Clayton
INTRODUCTION — April Fools Day — yesterday
A. Originally called “All Fools Day.”
B. Romans and Hindus — NEW YEARS was April 1.
1. Feast of Annunciation was New Years — March 25.
2. Pope Gregory XIII set January 1 as New Years.
Anyone using April 1 was a fool.
C. Start of Spring — fun time — make someone a fool.
1. Romans = Hilaria — resurrection of Attis
2. Hindu = Holi
3. Jews = Purim
D. Celebration of foolish things.
E. Three fools in the New Testament
FOOL 1 — THE MATERIALIST
A. Serving the material as a way to satisfaction.
B. Luke 12:16 – 21 — Rich man and his crops
1. At death, what good are things?
2. Ecclesiastes 2:17 – 19
C. Luke 18:18 – 25 — What are you in bondage to?
D. Luke 19:1 – 10 — Language is futuristic.
When you become a Christian the future changes.
E. Luke 9:23 – 26 — Pharisee and tax collector
FOOL 2 — THE LEGALIST — Rule keeping
A. Not fellowship with the person of God.
B. Luke 18:10 – 14 — March 19 lesson
C. Matthew 23:23
D. Romans 9:30 – 10:3
E. 2 Timothy 3:1 – 7
FOOL 3 — THE RATIONALIST
A. Trust his own reason rather than God.
B. Discarding God's Word, relying on philosophy.
C. Romans 1:18 – 23 — “Professing themselves to be wise”
D. 1 Corinthians 1:18 – 25
Richard Dawkins
E. 2 Peter 2:9 – 22, especially 17

THE BACK PAGE

WHAT DOES IT TAKE?

LifeWay Research is a organization that does studies of church attendance. In the September 2016 issue of Christianity Today they printed the results of a survey of 2,000 Americans who do not attend church services. The results are interesting and may give us a clue of what we need to do to get people who live in the area to come to services. The first thing they asked was, “What would it take to get you to come to a church?”

  • 62% said a meeting about matters of concern to the neighbor hood — safety,
    ....improvements, etc.
  • 51% said a community service event — a blood drive, a beautification project, caring
    ....for disabled, etc.
  • 46% said an exercise or sports program
  • 45% said a musical concert
  • 35% said a special worship service
  • 25% said a recovery group — AA or gamblers anon

The study also asked non-attending adults what method of invitation would be the most likely to get them to come to the church building.

  • 51% said a personal invitation from a friend or family
  • 23% said a TV commercial
  • 23% said a postcard
  • 21% said a church member knocking on their door
  • 18% said a Facebook ad

We have had quite a bit of discussion about what we should do to get people to come to services. Looking at these numbers might give us some clues as to what might work. There are some neighborhood issues that people around us are concerned about. The building we have is a great tool, but it is really under-used. We use it on Sunday and Wednesday night, but the rest of the week it sits here with no one inside and no program of any kind being carried on. There are so many things that could be done on our property — support groups, scouts, community action programs, luncheons, community classes, tutoring programs, voting places, community health programs — the list goes on and on. Let us think about how we can better use what God has given to us with this structure.

— John Clayton

Our sign by the street!

Our sign on the street says, GOD'S GLORY SHINES THROUGH HIS CREATION!

Sign saying by www.sayingsforchurchsigns.com.